Learning Specialists

The Ten Minutes That Matter

It’s been a busy start to the term! Our new library system is up and running and book borrowing is happening across our school as nightly reading kicks off for our grade 1-6 students. 

The school year can be busy and I know how busy evenings can feel. Sport. Dinner. Baths. Bags packed for tomorrow. It can be a lot.

So when we talk about nightly reading, I’m not asking for an hour at the kitchen table. I’m asking you for ten minutes.

Let me explain why this is the most important ten minutes that matters in the evening.

Imagine two students starting school. One receives $10 a day, five days a week, for six years. The other receives nothing. By the end of primary school, one child has quietly banked thousands of dollars. The other hasn’t.

Reading works the same way.

Ten minutes a day doesn’t feel like much. But over a year, that’s around 30 hours of reading practice. Over six or seven years of primary school, that becomes hundreds of hours. Hundreds of opportunities to build vocabulary. Fluency. Stamina. Confidence.

Small deposits = Big return.

We know that reading is one of the strongest indicators of success in secondary school and later life. When students can read confidently, everything else becomes more manageable — Science texts, Humanities sources, Maths word problems, exam questions. That’s why we bank the minutes now.

What might it look like?

You might read to your child.

They might read to you.

You might take turns.

You might simply sit nearby while they read independently and then chat about it.

Ask a simple question when the story is finished:

    •            What happened?

    •            What surprised you?

    •            What do you think will happen next

Let’s start banking those reading minutes together.

Ryan Bartok

Learning Specialist - Curriculum